Free Teleconferencing

This is a quick one.

I was looking for a low cost conferencing service to discuss some business ideas.. I ran into this one that is free for up 50 persons at a time.. thats good enough for me...

Here is the site

http://www.freeconferenceservice.com/index.htm

Happy conferencing

Challenges of Internet Computing

Computing has changed a lot over the last many years, but it seem that we can meaure this change in the applications and value that they bring.

In the enterprise, computing is seen as the engine for the basic day to day management of services and production. It also becomes a major vehicle for communication within and without the enterprise. Part of this communication covers areas such as provide information on services and products, selling the products and interacting with suppliers and purchasers of those products. With all this information in a growing database, management can extract and model data to make decisions such as best areas to focus, areas to invest and also those that should be discontinued.

As we look at the applications within the enterprise, we see an extension of this for the consumer. Using the example of the landline phone, we see that it became a standard part of communication and thus the eventual success of cell phones that represent the concept of been always connected.

Well, it would seem that voice communication by itself would be always be enough to stay in touch but with the availability of data using communication, this piece is becoming more important increasingly. There are currently several ways to stay connected in the data world but there is still lack of full integration in all areas. For example, the consumer wants to see whats happening around locally and international, make direct decisions for example on a stock trade or purchase anything. The other pleasant side is someone on vacation may want to show someone live a monument or event that is once in a lifetime.

The main enablers to achieve this level of integration are adequate and portable computing power plus appropriate and cheap bandwidth for sustained communications. To connect this together, there is also need for versatile applications. Some of these are VOIP, voice recognition and data mining technology.
While we can talk of these possibilities in the developed world and most urban centers, there is still a gap for information infrastructute in rural and underdeveloped countries. This is very much the case even in developed countries as well. The question that lingers is, how to make the leap for these areas and what would be appropriate to these cultures? It may be wrong to assume that just providing a computer and communication would simply bring these persons into the fold. It may be relevant to understand how these people value this need and how would they interact with such system. This comes to the issue of literacy; are they literate in the standard languages that is been used for mainstream communications?

Looking at the success of cell phones in developing countries, it seem that there exist some need to be connected and the beauty of the cell phone is that people can communicate in whatever language that they wish to communicate. On the other hand, the internet pages or services may not exist in many native and undocumented languages. This means that translation in some form would be helpful to reach these populations. This could solve by either educational means or develop technology to accomplish the same results.

Many times, the view is always that uneducated persons does not represent much of economic impact, thus the motication for investment is nulified. This may not be an accurate assessment since from simple observation we can see that a vast majority of the worlds population leaves in poorer countries or poor conditions. This means there is an oppurtunity to brings these people into the economic mainstream and create even larger economic impact.

To solve these intricate problems need further analysis and research, the dicussion will definitely continue on this.

Here is a link to review in the meantime - http://www.isoc.org/oti/articles/1196/sadowsky.html

Another good one - http://cse.stanford.edu/class/cs201/projects-00-01/third-world/

Another Portable

This another good model that is very innovative in concept

http://www.oqo.com/hardware/basics/

Innovative portable Computer

Here is a link from IBM with a new portable computer that can be transformed very easily for different uses.

http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/pr.nsf/pages/news.20020206_metapad.html

This fit into model of new ways of man machine interaction

Wearable Computers

Keeping with my plans. I decided to provide a link to the MIT media lab on wearable computer research. In fact I help to setup our wireless Mesh Network at this lab. We developed the mesh along with MIT research.

Here is the link. Will have more comments later

http://www.media.mit.edu/wearables/

Back on track

Well, I am back here now after a couple weeks off. Experience some of the early effects of Wilma in Jamaica with lots of rain.

My intended focus here is to research developments in the area of broadband communication and the relevant technologies in respect to man->network->man interaction.

I will do some work in the area of Man-Machine interaction in the next few weeks then come back to the wireless side of things later or when something interesting pops up.

Ran into this reggae artist out in Jamaica too, that seems very good. Name is Benjy Myaz. Website at www.benjymyaz.com. Seem to be doing some refreshing new type of reggae.

MIT $100 Laptop initiative

This is very good development, trying to make the laptop cheap for children. This could revolutionize the whole thinking on network availability.

Honestly, if you can get a laptop for $100 here, there is no reason we could not get that commercially.

Here is the link for more details

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

Wireless base TV

I just ran into this company that provides the service for TV over Cellphones. Now this explains why good broadband is needed.

Check out at http://www.smartvideo.com/index.html

Currently, this technology works over EVDO but with cheap WiMAX the application usage could increase significantly.

Hypercast

Here is another useful application project. Will attend a presentation from the Professor on this later this month.

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~mngroup/hypercast-2004/overview.html

Sounds very useful

Wireless Mesh Technology

Just a quick one on this new link.

Wireless Mesh is the technology that basically connects Wireless Access Points into a network using a wireless backhaul in place of wires. This technology has mostly been developed in the 802.11 space. Obviously there are thinking to use for WiMAX type deployments to save on backhaul cost and setup.

This link gives very good overview of the protocol and also outlines the current trends.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=169500231


Enjoy

Another good link

Here is a good link for Broadband Wireless information.

http://www.bbwexchange.com/

Has a lot of information and other links.

Should be good to find rural solutions

Broadband link

Not much today.. but here is a good link from a company thats into 802.16e. It's a white paper.

http://www.navini.com/downloads/Unwiring%20Broadband.pdf

Rural Internet

Haven't been on here in a while. Just a have little to say today about connectivity

Within an Urban area, there are several technologies available today for providing Internet connectivity. This goes from Dial-up to ADSL and also hot-spots.

Once you get into the rural area, the limits are very obvious with mainly GPRS and EVDO for connectivity in a limited sense.

While there are many small solutions out there to provide wireless connectivity, it seem the best practical one to date is WiMAX (802.16D). This is the fixed version of WiMAX and would allow the level of bandwidth to sustain fairly good connections.

The issue with that is whether it will take off. The hype to get the mobile version of WIMAX (802.16e) will probably slow down the possible growth of 802.16d).

In summary, the main lacking for 802.16d is client support. Currently, you can get a 802.11 card for a few dollars. For 802.16d you need a big installation setup similar to a sattelite dish..

The other potential option would be to use 802.16d for getting into the community, then use 802.11 mesh technology to spread the signal around.

I think this whole topic is very important especially for developing countries. The US and Canada has this issue too so its very important.

Check out http://www.ruralbroadbandcoalition.net/ or http://www.onspeed.com/us/index.php?A=GoogleBT&kw=rural+broadband

re-inventing the living room

Interestingly, the rise of broadband to the home has change ways in which people can now entertain.

for example in the pass you buy a stereo to play music, dvd player or vcr for movies, console for games and no option to look at family pictures. Now with the Internet and personal computer, you can do all of the above in one place with very good quality.

The two competing options are the Xbox and the pc running windows or linux. For PC, microsoft has a media version to fit this purpose, see http://www.xpmce.com/ Linux has several such as freevo and MythTV.

The xbox has many options, like http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/ and others. you would need to modify an existing xbox with large harddrive and boot rom etc. This can be found at various sites using google.

In respect to cost, $500US could get you a reasonable PC or modified xbox with 160GB hard drive, Tv-out card and remote control. top of the line will run from $1000 to $2000.00 but can be less if you get creative.

The interesting thing is there are numerous online sites that sell membership to get the latest movies and music. when I say latest, I mean before its selling on DVD etc.. most membership run for $50US for over two years at a time.

With this approach, you really do not need movie channels on the cable which means you pay off the above cost in a very short time if you are a movie lover. For music, all you need is a good set of speakers and you jamming. With many option of software, you could run a good party using this setup.

As I am in the process of setting this up, I would love to see if we could server the video over my home wireless network to a notebook or tablet PC. I tried to evaluate whats the best option and it seems the PC with either Linux or windows is best. The xbox would win if I was a gaming person but I am open to getting one for later use by the kids.

I will later show more interesting stuff with integration etc. Maybe add Voip into the mix with WLan phone etc..

Mobile Computing update

I ran into this link about mobile communication which I found to be rather interesting. I am very busy now, later I can give some more insights.

http://mpa.stanford.edu/

Voice Communication Gadgets

There are some interesting products on the market today. The one that catches my attention was this company www.vocera.com. They provide a communication system for enterprise like applications such as offices and hospital. It combines wireless, voip, voice recognition and text messaging.

It would be nice to transform this type of technology into more wide area usage such as with Cell phones etc.

The concept to investigate is how to make the person a part of the network, this meanings you can reach them by any available means at any time. This means some degree of translation from different medias.


This is a very good area to explore in light of broadband connectivity.

Time to rest

Well tonight is Shabbath. It reminds me that God cares about us by allocating a day of rest from the rigor of everyday toil and stress.

Its good to timeout and look at the picture every so often

Enjoy the rest.

More on Broadband

Looking at technologies today. WLAN provides the best bandwidth in respect to pricing. The main drawback is wide scale deployments of the magnitude seen with cell networks.

One interim solution is the use of Mesh networks, but this in my opinion seem to fit mostly campus type scenarios such as Universities and small cities.

With the coming of WIMAX, maybe the early stage would be an hybrid solution of using WiMAX as the backhaul and WLAn for client access. This will make sense since there is a large install base of WLAN client cards already in the market.

While its good to have options, it may not be easy to support dual or triple mode cards to get the best service where ever. Some service will need to stand out as the main connectivity option eventually

Maybe the next step is looking at practical applications of internet everywhere. I remember a few years ago, bluetooth was pushed as the way to connect everywhere, meaning you go to the gas station and to get gas but there would be connectivity to get directions and basic information using a wireless client.

What prevents this from taking off?

Broadband Wireless

Well, I am getting the hang of this thing now, so I can start to review some cool stuff.

There is a lot of interest in arrival of mobile WiMAX. Why is this? There are several options out there today. EVDO for CDMA, UMTS, HSPA and GPRS for GSM and the good old WLAN.

Two areas driving the need for WiMAX is Low-cost connectivity everywhere and rural broadband.

It therefore means to deliver WiMAX there will be cost pressure upfront for the service provider. Looking at the popular $20/month for dial-up and now $30/month for DSL.

A key element for WiMAX in the outset today is to deliver real Rural Broadband especially for developing countries. Instead of going through various technology stages, they can jump directly to real useful broadband service.

On the developed market side, the main driver I think will be full connectivity services, meaning you purchase a monthly package that includes, DSL, CellPhone and Wireless Broadband.

Now the other side that still out to jury is real applications. You are not going to walk around with a laptop just to prove you have Internet access. Tablets may even be too cumbersome but then PDAs maybe too small. What will make this fly in these markets. One option is Car PCs which have been around for awhile but not extremely popular. The main thing is the man to computer interface that will affect this whole thing.

Thats a good start, there is lots to discuss on this topic. More later

Wireless and Voip

My second blog using a different host.

I am very interested to investigate the trends with Wireless Technology, its mixture with VOIP and voice recognition.

Imagine the ability to be chatting on yahoo with someone driving in a car on their phone. The possibilities are great. You could also send an e-mail using voice only from a mobile phone.

The enablers I think will be mobile WiMAX and currently wifi for in building situations.